...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...as "completely false" and repeated a call for them to be withdrawn from combat zones.
He said the military did its utmost to avoid harming UNIFIL personnel, while striking Hezbollah fighters.
"But the best way to assure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to heed Israel's request and to temporarily get out of harm's way," he said.
Defying Israel, UNIFIL chief says peacekeepers to ‘stay in all positions’ in Lebanon
[IsraelTimes] United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
peacekeepers will stay in all positions in Lebanon despite Israeli calls for them to move, given intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and five blue helmets suffering injuries, the UN peacekeeping chief says.
“The decision was made that UNIFIL would currently stay in all its positions in spite of the calls that were made by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate the positions that are in the vicinity of the Blue Line,” says UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
The IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have made repeated calls in recent days to UNIFIL to evacuate from active combat zones, arguing that Hezbollah has been using its positions as human shields